Skip to main content

Science and Art Viewed by Richard Feynman


Free stock photo of flowers, yellow, petals, blur"I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree, I think. And he says—“you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think that he’s kind of nutty. 
First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting-it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds o f interesting questions which shows that a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don’t understand how it subtracts." - Richard Feynman, "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life - Transforming Questions

If the quality of our life depends on the decisions we make. And the quality of our decisions is largely determined by the quality of the questions we ask, what are the questions that could lead us to the greatest breakthrough in life? Here is a (never complete) collection of questions I believe can assist you in moving forward and transforming your life. You don't have to try and answer all of them. Instead, feel free to browse through the list and contemplate the questions that resonate with you at this moment. The questions might be used also as journal prompters and in practising meditation. What do you stand for? What person do you wish to become? If thoughts shape reality, what would you like to think about that would help you move forward? If you'd have to do the impossible with nothing, where would you start? Who are you without the doing? Who are you when you just are? If you could re-imagine and transform their life just by visualizing and thinking, wha
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Bother Making Art?

Art is the highest form of hope and the boldest form of self-expression. Creativity - the greatest rebellion in existence. It takes courage to create and share our work.  Both art and creativity are based on transgression and rooted in possibility. Their right of existence lies in providing an opportunity for a space to shape itself around a concept.  Artistic work is both a matter of survival and a chance to learn how to live, achieving inner stability and restoring the connection with the core of our being. We go through a fragile process of filtering perceptions, learning, un-learning and re-learning how to listen, look and see before giving birth to new realities. We allow ourselves to become who we are. "Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt."-  Christian Boltanski Yet both vulnerability and authenticity require practice. Exposing the core of our being to a world of friends and strangers to love, criticize or ignore is never simple
Post a Comment
Read more

Creativity, Uncertainty and Possibility

When you're new to something, Rick Rubin enlightened us, you bring an ignorance that can be highly innovative. The usefulness of experts is indisputable but when you need a breakthrough freshness of insight is a priority. Indeed, so much of what we know somehow stands in the way of developing new perspectives. In a sense, we're at all times hostages to our mental models. And only by becoming familiar with them and aware of them can we learn how to see things from a new angle.  Sometimes we may need to impose constraints on our projects in order to channel our creative energy. At other times, we may be asked to do exactly the opposite: drop the limitations, un-scope and acknowledge the importance of exploring something totally new, even if we don't know where this would lead us to. Unchartered territories obviously don't come with maps. They do, however, come with the promise of allowing us to be the first to map them while navigating them based on our inner compass.  Ne
Post a Comment
Read more